On the Current Moment

Published:Proletary, No. 18, September 26 (13), 1905.

      Published according to the text inProletary.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1972,

      Moscow,Volume 9,

      pages286-287.Translated:The Late Abraham Fineberg and Julius KatzerTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Thedetermined stand taken by the Smolensk Municipal Council has been held up byProletary, in issue No.

				 15,[1]as an instance of what might be called
“revolutionary self-government” (whichIskraconfuses with
the slogan of a popular uprising). The Council declared the billeting of the
Cossacks contrary to law, stopped all payments to them, organised a city
militia to protect the population, and appealed to the soldiers to refrain from
violence against citizens.

Toillustrate the workings of the same idea and to characterise the moment we
are living through, we shall quote froml’Humanitéa
resolution passed
by the Kerch Municipal Council in connection with the recent pogrom in that
city.

TheCouncil decreed: 1) that sympathy be expressed to the Jewish inhabitants on
the casualties (killed and injured) and the material losses incurred; 2) that
two scholarships be established at the local Gymnasium in memory of pupils
killed during the disturbances; 3) inasmuch as the local authorities proved
incapable and little disposed to protect the lives and property of the
population, that payments for the upkeep of the police be discontinued from
local funds; 4) that a sum of 1,500 rubles be distributed among the poorer Jews
who had suffered most during the disturbances; 5) that the harbour-master be
commended as the only local official who had energetically and humanely
prevented the further spread of the mass manhandling; 6) that the Minister for
the Interior be informed of the authorities’ unlawful behaviour during the
disturbances, and a Senate investigation be demanded.

Inthe measure that the Kerch Municipal Council has, of its own free will,
extended the scope of the powers it is entitled to by law, and in the measure
that it is participating in the revolutionary life of the whole country, it is
embarking upon really “revolutionary self-government”. But where are
theguaranteesthat that self-government will turn into one by thepeople?And should we Social-Democrats emphasise this “piece of
revolution” as the main slogan of agitation, or speak of a complete and
decisive victory of the revolution, which is impossible without an uprising?

[1]See pp. 221-22 of this volume.—Ed.